WEATHER: INDEX
Wednesday, windy and cold with flurries, high of News D,9est.2
40 with temperatures falling by afternoon, north- Editorial.4
west winds 15 to 35 miles per hour and gusting. Sports.6
Wednesday night, windy and cold with flurries, Arts & Entertainment.9
tow of 1°. Thursday, partly cloudy, breezy and Classifieds .... 11
cold, high of 25.
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Vol. 89 No.^»S7
I A visit instigates
dent demonstration
By Jana Pedersen
Stajor Reporter
Chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, the
CIA has got to go,” about 30
UNL students and faculty
members marched in front of and
through the Nebraska Union, protest
iag Tuesday’s student recruitment ef
forts by the CIA.
Pep rotest, organized by Univer
sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln student
groups Early Warning! and the Latin
American Solidarity Committee,
began at about 12:30 p.m. near
Broyhill Fountain where demonstra
tors carried mock gravestones and
signs that said, “Slop U.S. terror
ism,” “Abolish the CIA” and “CIA
-Cocaine Importing Agency.”
Protestors marched in a circle and
chanted, “Hey hey, CIA, how many
kids did you kill today?”
The march then proceeded
through the union to the second floor
Bear the office where student recruit
ment interviews were taking place.
There, protestors stood outside the
office, continuing a “vigil” that
llarted at 8-a.m. when CIA recruit
ment began Tuesday.
Seven protestors moved into the
office and sal silently in the waiting
Worn until they were asked to leave
by Daryl Swanson, director of the
Mion.
m “Your being here, in my feeling,
yfe disruptive,” Swanson told the pro
testors inside the office.4 ‘This is not
a public area in my opinion.”
The protestors asked Swanson to
produce documentation saying they
could not sit in the office, and Swan
son returned with copies of the Uni
versity of Nebraska policy statement
on campus disorders.
A portion of the statement pro
vides protection for university em
ployees from interference with uni
versity operations.
According to the statement, “The
university community may restrict
conduct which interferes with ... the
discharge of responsibility by any
university officer, employee, or stu
dent.”
“Noise and boisterous activity are
objectionable when they prevent oth
ers from exercising their rights and
duties,” according to the statement.
Swanson said the statement ap
plied to the protestors’ actions.
“Being inside this room is a dis
ruption to the function of a university
activity,” he said.
The protestors then left the room
and concluded their demonstration in
the hallway outside with a song and a
cheer.
“You can’t forbid me everything.
You can’t forbid me to think. You
can’t forbid my tears to flow. You
can’t stop this song I sing,” pro
testors sang.
Joe Bowman, ad hoc CIA projoct
coordinator for Early Warning!, said
Al Schaben/Daily Nebraskan
Daryl Swanson (center), director of the Nebraska Union, asks supporters of Early Warning! to
leave the CIA recruitment waiting room on the second floor of the union Tuesday afternoon.
the university policy statement on
campus disorders means that students
“can’t effectively hold a demonstra
tion.”
“The way they define demonstra
tion, by limiting them (demonstra
tions) by their definition, a demon
stration is standing around,” Bow
man said. “What they have defined
here is a crowd.”
Ron Podwinski, a senior finance
major who was wailing for an inter
view with another company, said the
protestors didn’t really bother him.
“Actually, it’s entertaining,” he
said.
But Podwinski said that if he had
been interviewing with the CIA, he
might have been bothered by it.
“Students have the right to recruit
with whoever they want,” he said.
Craig Morris, senior marketing
major who also interviewed with
another company while the protest
was going on, said he wasn’t aware
that the CIA was recruiting.
Morris said the recruiter he inter
viewed with “was pretty upset” by
See DEMONSTRATE on 3
Officials: Visser charges unfounded
By Chuck Green
Senior Reporter
The recent lawsuit filed by Mary Jane
Visser against the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln has painted a
“broadbrush picture of academic disregard at
UNL,’’ particularly where student athletes arc
concerned, according to one university vice
chancellor.
Robert Furgason, UNL vice chancellor for
academic affairs, said Tuesday that4 ‘sweeping
conclusions from isolated cases’ ’ that surfaced
during the trial’s proceedings have had a nega
tive impact on the academic image of the
university and on Comhuskcr athletes.
Furgason said he resents the allegations.
“(Academic standards) are being upheld in
our program,’’ he said. “I haven’t seen any
evidence otherwise.”
Visser, who was employed by UNL for 19
years, filed suit against James Griesen, vice
chancellor for student affairs, and general stud
ies Director Donald Gregory.
Visser claimed in her suit that she was fired
Sept. 2, 1988, for uncovering irregularities in
student athletes’ academic records. The uni
versity said she was fired for poor job perform
ance.
The U.S. District Court ruled Monday in
favor of the university.
The way in which the trial was prescn'ed,
Furgason said, portrayed UNL’s athletic de
partment as an “involved element’’ in the
ease.
Visser’s early testimony included allega
tions of special academic treatment of UNL
athletes.
“I have never detected that student athletes
have ever gotten special treatment,’’ he said.
Furgason dismissed Visser’s claims, saying
they were based on “isolated incidents.’’ One
such incident centered on a healthy lifestyles
class UNL offered during the summer of 1988.
Two sections of the class, coordinated
through the UNL School of Health, Physical
Education and Recreation, were created to
allow students to complete required credits to
graduate at the end of the summer term.
Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne said
Tuesday that because the sections did not have
the certified number of students enrolled to
prevent them from being cancelled, an instruc
tor contacted Roger Grooters, UNL athletic
department director of academic programs.
“He asked Roger if some athletes would
1 ike togef in,” Osborne said. “It was mainly to
keep the course from being cancelled.”
The class originally was scheduled in a
room thal was without air conditioning,
Osborne said, and the instructor asked permis
sion to meet at the Hewitt Academic Center for
male athletes. Osborne agreed.
Because the class was not properly adver
tised in the course bulletin, and because of the
change of location, “it triggered a lot of suspi
cion of academic irregularities,” Osborne
said.
Furgason said the suspicion caused by the
summer class was just another in a long list of
“innuendoes” associated with student-ath
letes’ academic lives.
But he said concerns about academic dis
honesty arc unnecessary.
“We have an ongoing program to look at all
grading practices in all departments,” Fur
gason said. “If (grading practices arc) unusual,
we look at them to see why they’re unusual.”
Student athletes, Furgason said, sometimes
suffer disadvantages other students don’t have
to endure.
One example Furgason cited was that of
differing drop/add policies.
Non-athlete students are able to drop a class
if they find themselves in academic trouble,
but scholarship athletes “don’t have that privi
lege,” he said, because NCAA rules require
them to carry a minimum of 12 hours per se
mester.
Student athletes also arc unable to experi
ence the wide variety of courses other students
can, Furgason said.
Non-athletes can sample classes outside
their major requirements at their own discre
tion. But because of the Satisfactory Progress
Rule, UNL athletes’ progress is monitored to
ensure they take classes directed toward their
major.
“I’m all for that,” Furgason said. “Our
objective is to gel all students graduated from
the university. But it just is another perk ath
letes aren’t allowed that other students are.’’
Osborne said the NU athletic academic
standards are high. He said that since 1973,
Nebraska has had 31 football players named to
the academic All-America team — the most in
the nation. Stanford is second with 14, while
Notre Dame and Ohio Stale University have
nine each.
Osborne said continuous scrutiny of Ne
braska’s athletic department is unfair.
“Over the last two years, there has been a
scries of incidents where people have pul us on
trial, accusing us of something or other,”
Osborne said. “I find myself defending myself
again - it’s getting a little old.”
*
At Schaben/Dally Nebraskan
Mark Davis, Nebraska Union Board president, talks with a representative
of Valentino’s Tuesday during a meeting to select one of five bidding
pizza vendors to replace the dairy store in the Nebraska Union.
isser loses sex discrimination suit
rbom rules in UNLs favor
m Jerry Guenther
lior Reporter
S. District Court Judge Warren Ur
bom decided in favor of the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln Tuesday
temoon in the case of a former academic
/iser who had filed a lawsuit for, among
ier things, alleged sex discrimination.
Urbom’s ruling on Title VII of the Civil
ISights Act denies compensation to Mary Jane
|>er for alleged sex discrimination by the
'ersity.
although a seven-member District Court
found Monday that the university was not
ly of sex discrimination, Visser still could
s received back pay and compensation had
om ruled in her favor,
lexual discrimination suits under Title VII
a be decided by a judge.
Thom Cope, Visser’s attorney, said he
thought Urbom used the jury’s verdict as an
advisory opinion.
“It was not unexpected,’’ Cope said. “I
would have been surprised if it had been the
other way, frankly.”
Cope said he filed a motion for a new trial
Tuesday morning because he' believes the
admission of the grievance reports were preju
dicial based on the federal rules of evidence.
“We felt that the admission of these reports
was in error,” Cope said.
If the motion for a new trial is denied, Cope
said, he will consider appealing the case.
In addition to sex discrimination, Visscr
claimed in the suit that UNL Vice Chancellor
for Student Affairs James Oriesen and general
studies Director Donald Gregory fired her for
reporting irregularities in athletes’ academic
records. The jury ruled in favor of the univer
sity Monday.
